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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

doodled dishwasher

As I shared yesterday, we are in the midst of working on transforming our kitchen into something that is a little more our style and part of that style is incorporating creative little touches. After looking at our budget, we decided that replacing all of our appliances with new ones just didn't matter that much to us. The only appliance that needs to be replaced is our stove, the dishwasher and fridge are GREAT- no they are not top of the line stainless steel but they work just fine. The dishwasher is dated so I decided to use my love of drawing pattern to transform a dishwasher from the 80's into a fun piece of art!

While I could have drawn directly onto the surface of the dishwasher I decided to go with something a little less permanent (I tend to change things so I wanted to be able to take my drawing off and make a new one someday!) so I used white contact paper.

I cut the contact paper to size (I covered all the areas except the panel of buttons).

The next step I gave lots of thought and planning- while I could have doodled on the paper before sticking it to the dishwasher, after some experimentation, it was pretty challenging so I decided to go ahead and stick the blank paper to the dishwasher and then draw.

Then I went to town doodling! I work pretty fast on creative projects but this one wasTIME CONSUMING- it took me an entire day (about 9+ hours) which for me is a long time. It was hard on my black and my hand but the end result is SO cool!

In one day and for about $10.00 our dated dishwasher was transformed into a really cool and unique statement piece in the kitchen! So much better than stainless steel (in my opinion).

For those who will ask- yes, we have run the dishwasher a couple of time and the contact paper is holding up just fine!

Thank you for sharing your work! I have loved all your art projects and this one is definitely one to make me think outside the box. I love how you work around your daughter which shows patience and diligence and the importance you put into incorporating her into your loves. Lucy is so blessed.

Wow that's fantastic, I remember doing Celtic Knotwork in our old house and it took hours and hours and hours, I remember spending an evening laid down near the skirting board to paint - hard work - but worthwhile

Hi Trish! Well to begin with I am more comfortable drawing upright when I am working on a large surface. The contact paper is kind of trickly- since it is not like regular paper it was really difficult and nearly impossible (for me) to completely flatten it out enough to really get comfortable drawing as much detail as I was. It may work for someone else but for me it was easier (despite the awkward positions) to draw while it was one the dishwasher. It was really important for me to step back and look at the pattern and the way it developed on the actual dishwasher :)

I noticed it in an earlier post and thought it was wonderful. The funny thing is, we are doing a remodel and I am painting an appliance and adding moldings. Fun.. I Hate Stainless Steel...and my fridge I am going to paint is just that...Anyway...yours looks FAB!

Love this! Reminds me of years ago when our old fridge still worked but looked awful. I decided to cover it with wall paper which (at the time) matched the rest of the room. It came out perfectly and used it until we moved 10 years later.

Just love this. I am curious--does contact paper come off completely? (I haven't played around with it since we covered our school books with it in high school!) I'm wondering if I could do this with our apartment dishwasher that is a lovely olive green/yellow color. ;)